He Played Well In Bad Weather?

Pete Carroll and John Schneider did little to soothe fears that the trade for Charlie Whitehurst was a stretch. I counted myself among the more optimistic fans when I heard about the trade, and assumed we’d find out some additional context that made Whitehurst worth losing 20 spots in the 2nd round.

We did get additional context, but instead of some significant insight our front office had into Whitehurst that others did not, we found out that Schneider was impressed how he threw in bad weather during his pro day and that they liked the mobility he demonstrated during his 15 exhibition appearances.

There are now two ways this can go:

1) We find out our front office is superhuman and can predict a QB of the future on minimal information. This would bode well for our scouting in many areas.

2) We find out our front office is amateurish, and is prone to getting fleeced by more experienced NFL teams.

No matter what you think of this deal, all Seahawks fans should pray for #1.

One Response

QB is obviously a notoriously difficult position in which to predict success. Will a rookie from the draft start – Sanchez looks good but he has a strong o-line so what would he have been like had we drafted him last year? Will the rookie come good further down the line – Hass did nothing for a good few season (6, yes?) before he came to us, so anything's possible.

Then there's the fact that picking a QB in the first round would have cost the earth so this way, we not only get a QB who has stayed in the NFL for 4 years and has experience in terms of being part of the "circus", but someone who will not be overly exhorbitant in terms of salary/signing boonus despite this being an uncapped year.

On the downside he has very little experience but then if he did have some we would be paying more and no doubt giving away higher draft picks – I honestly don't think the Seneca deal can be compared here as Seneca has proved he will never be setting the league on fire. Sure, we don't know if Whitehurst will play above Seneca's abilities shown, but then that's the whole point, surely?

I've read a lot about this and someone made the salient point that we should not dismiss this trade. Volek is clearly a back-up and has been used rotationally but this has not been done to Charlie as he's being groomed (or it appears that way) to be the number one – you just don't replace one of the top QBs in the NFL like that!

I've also read that Carroll and Schneider watched every single snap of Charlie's 3 times over and liked what they saw. OK, he's only ever done pre-season but you've got to start somewhere, right?

Who knows how this pans out, but one thing I'm glad of is that we have an all-round consensus of new (positive, energetic) blood permeating Qwest and that, if the only thing, is something to give great cheer to.